Then imagine being told you have to be flown out of country to do that.

Klimek recalls a patient several years ago who was of Middle Eastern background and who had a name similar to one on the "no-fly" list.

You may be critically ill, but you still need a passport to get into the U.S.

"To cross the border, Homeland Security has to let you in," he said in an interview.

The Ministry of Health says fewer patients are now being shipped out of province for neurosurgery.

In 2008/09, 120 patients went out of country for neurosurgery.

In 2009/10, 202 patients went out of country. So far in 2010/11 (April 1 to Sept. 30), only 41patients have gone out of country. That's still seven people on average a month who are sent out of province. It makes you wonder if it's cheaper to send patients to Buffalo than treat them here. "The improvement this fiscal year is due to the establishment by the ministry of an Emergency Neurosurgery Access Program," said ministry spokesman David Jensen.

"The program also provides $400,000 to each of the 10 neurosurgical centres to help reduce the number of out of country transfers," he said.

While it's good that things are improving, what does it say about this health-care system we cherish? We like to feel so superior to the Americans because we have publicly funded health care.

Yet when the going gets tough, when our system has no space, they're the first people we turn to for help."

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MPP Jim Bradley is the Liberal poster boy for bashing the American health care system. Bradley loved to laugh at and deride the American health care system - even as his Liberal hypocrites sent patients to Buffalo; and while other health-care-seeking Ontarians just left McGuinty's wait-time infested province on their own. Bradley and Smitherman downplayed this trend as 'anecdotal', as hear-say, as an aberration. McGuinty's Liberals wrapped themselves in the Canadian flag of Tommy Douglas as they bashed the same U.S. system that helped Ontario's patients time and again while the Liberal's health monopoly could not - see here; here; here; here; here; here; here - or see any of the hundred 'Liberal healthcare duplicity' links below.

And why hasn't MPP Jim Bradley yet bothered to publicly explain why his health monopoly failed to provide for Helen Harris, who was shipped off to the States from Bradley's own single-payer nirvana in St.Catharines, to die in Buffalo? [see also here; here; here]
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